School Committee — 2018-01-23
Agenda
- To approve executive session minutes of January 9, 2018 (5 minutes)
- To conduct strategy session in preparation for negotiations with the MEA (30 minutes)
- Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)
- Second vote required on Policy EBB: First Aid
- Second vote required on Policy EEAEA: Vehicle Driver Examination and Training
- Second vote required on Policy EFC: Reduced and Free Lunch Program
- Warrants
- Statement of Interest for the MSBA Accelerated Repair Program (10 minutes) vote required
- FY18 Mid-year Budget Update (5 minutes)
- FY19 Superintendent's Budget Narrative (30 minutes)
- School Cancellation Project (20 minutes) vote required
- No New Business
- Subcommittee Assignments (5 minutes)
- Liaison Reports (5 minutes)
Minutes
CITY OF MELROSE MELROSE SCHOOL COMMITTEE MINUTES● JANUARY 23, 2018 Aldermanic Chamber, Melrose City Hall Regular Meeting 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176
(ID # 6206) Executive Session To approve executive session minutes of January 9, 2018 (5 minutes)
(ID # 6205) Executive Session To conduct strategy session in preparation for negotiations with the MEA (30 minutes)
(ID # 6217) Announcements - Superintendent Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)
(ID # 6218) Consent Second vote required on Policy EBB: First Aid Adopted
(ID # 6219) Consent Second vote required on Policy EEAEA: Vehicle Driver Examination and Training Adopted
(ID # 6220) Consent Second vote required on Policy EFC: Reduced and Free Lunch Program Adopted
(ID # 6210) Consent Warrants Adopted City of Melrose Page 1 Updated 2/21/2018 5:29 PM Minutes Melrose School Committee January 23, 2018
(ID # 6232) Finance and Facilities Statement of Interest for the MSBA Accelerated Repair Program (10 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6215) Finance and Facilities FY18 Mid-year Budget Update (5 minutes)
(ID # 6214) Finance and Facilities FY19 Superintendent's Budget Narrative (30 minutes)
(ID # 6222) Educational Programs and Personnel School Cancellation Project (20 minutes) vote required
(ID # 6221) Policy and Planning No New Business
(ID # 6177) Announcements - Chair Subcommittee Assignments (5 minutes)
(ID # 6216) Announcements - Chair Liaison Reports (5 minutes) Note: The listed agenda items are those that are reasonably anticipated by the Chair to be discussed at the meeting. Not all items, in fact, may be discussed, and other items not listed also may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. City of Melrose Page 2 Updated 2/21/2018 5:29 PM
Transcript
▶ 0:00 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Melrose School Committee meeting of January 23rd, 2018. Can we please rise and say the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And just a note that this meeting is being recorded. First on our agenda this evening is the report of the student representatives and as you know we do not have a representative this evening so I would like to report a couple of things. First the last day of midterms were today so the official end of quarter two and midpoint of the year. The first high school community day is tomorrow an event centered around learning for the
▶ 0:52 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: love of learning and being engaged with your community with teacher and student sponsored workshops throughout the day the stem AP day is February 3rd where all stem centered AP classes will be able to have an extended study session and practice test seniors will be having a meeting on Thursday regarding internships their year is starting to wind down Melrose drama is hosting a fundraiser at Liberty Bell on January 31st from 5 to 8 in sports news boys swim one last night against Somerville boys and girls track have been off to a good start despite the snow days interrupting practice boys wrestling has a home match Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Watertown and boys and girls basketball have started off their seasons with tremendous games in the last few weeks
▶ 1:41 so that is the report of the students next on our agenda is public comment and I would entertain a motion to open public second seconded by mr. O'Connell discussion seeing none all in favor opposed that motion carries unanimously public comment is now open mr. Morales hi my name is Jerry Morales um I'm here to speak once more about the what you call the school cancellation project also known as blizzard bags as I stated the last time that this came up I don't believe this is at all a responsible initiative I believe students require learning in school with teachers the best they can despite all the flowery language about you know wanting students to learn how to learn outside of school and and do all these wonderful things the fact is is that we
▶ 3:00 haven't gotten a system to do that we don't have a competency based education system that students can engage at their level of readiness independently for a time still with the guidance of a teacher there are so many complicated issues and logistics around doing this it's it's not worth the effort in the aggravation and frankly students need more time engaged with teachers and learning within their zone of proximal development they don't need less time for students elementary students middle school or high school students any of these students on a snow day are not going to get the value that they deserve of one of their 180 days that they are entitled to in school some of the arguments used are specious arguments the idea but all the end of school it
▶ 3:54 gets too hot or that you know but nobody's ever evaluating that as you get close to the end of school everybody gets more antsy it's not necessarily about the temperature there's always going to be that end of school issue you you can solve that by having a longer school day. Obviously you feel that that's impossible, but what I want to say is that I have brought forward to this body for a number of years now that when you negotiate your contract with the teachers, this is exactly why you can't do a status quo contract every time. We want professional development for our teachers. We want them there and we want to pay them for it. When you give more money to teachers, need to get something in exchange you know that teacher contracts are iterative that whatever the
▶ 4:39 teachers get one time they're going to have forever and if it's your responsibility and every one of the teacher contracts that you've negotiated obviously some of you haven't been through a negotiation here but that this district has negotiated with the superintendent and you haven't extracted if you will for the extra money you provide the teachers the extra professional development time, the extra time for lunch so the students can have a valid lunch and a break during the day, the extra school day time, a whole host of the extra teacher conference time. All these issues come down to contract, and because this school committee and this superintendent failed to negotiate a good contract that was progressive in terms of what the learning
▶ 5:21 and what the needs of the district were, don't now take away from the students their right to an education for those 180 days blizzard bags you know no matter how you try to frame it or what language you put or whatever fact files you put out there they don't go anywhere here and harking back to a couple months ago when this came up I want to declare that it was not a matter of you didn't do the job in informing people those of us who were well informed responded to the school committee in a fashion that showed that we had a lot of elements about what was problematic about blizzard bags the people who said oh it'll be great to know when the last day of school is oh I want you know more time in the summer
▶ 6:06 and not go in you know those aren't legitimate public policy issues so please don't let this be you know a given that you're going to do this you know our students need the education we can provide them the the charter schools that typically do more than 180 days get a lot more development out of their students for the extra days they do and if you want to argue that there's five days at the end of the school year or two weeks the end of the school year when kids are disengaged again it's not necessarily the heat it's the time schedule more days of school and I know that's a politically difficult thing in problematic in some ways but don't take time away from students to get the professional development needs done for the district that the district hasn't on
▶ 6:57 its own been responsible about providing thank you what I just like to I don't think that even if you wanted to vote to do these blizzard bags that it would be appropriate to try to implement them immediately for this year in any way shape or form there are so many more complications about this that i don't think people have contemplated and even if you've contemplated them you can't control all the issues and the equity issues about students and family time and um you know what parents are home or can be home and be with the kids and how kids work and how parents work and everything else so please don't rush into this even if you think that it's a valuable thing to do which i i certainly don't believe
▶ 7:51 that it is thank you thank you is there anyone else who would like to come forward for public comment this evening could you please come forward my name is Jocelyn Walker I'm a resident of Melrose I've experienced some property damage in Melrose and I remain in contact with the Melrose Police Department about those concerns now for people from a different generation than the Millennials and other generations alive today there was a time period when youth were involved in property damage it's not clear to me that youth are involved and I'd like to thank the school committee for supporting youth and finding alternatives to behaviors like property damage I appreciate that I'd also like to take this opportunity to remind the school committee that no part of
▶ 9:04 American government is supposed to be involved in telling people that they can or cannot be in a particular faith community that's not the role of government or the school system I know people like myself are still reeling from the Jeffrey Tambor award-winning Emmy Emmy award-winning actor scandal where it turned out he portrayed transgender individuals in a television show and in fact there are accusations that he was actually in real life undermining the transgender community I am proud to be part of a community like Melrose where something like that wouldn't be tolerated or supported and I think the school committee for promoting that kind of tolerance and diversity I think that's very important I would like to remind the school committee that the
▶ 9:53 The Abrahamic faiths are the largest religions in America and the world. Saudi Arabia, which is the birthplace of Islam, supplies a number of contracts to Massachusetts, including through Raytheon, a key company that is headquartered here in Massachusetts. And I'm glad that in Melrose we wouldn't be perceived as discriminating against the Abrahamic faiths, whether that's Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. The Jewish state of Israel has been a wonderful messenger against persecution of all types, including the persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Asia. That's a tragic situation. Israel also does a lot of support for the economy here in Massachusetts. It's a guardian of sites that are important to all three Abrahamic faiths.
▶ 10:38 And it also has contracts with a major defense contractor, Raytheon, which is headquartered here in Massachusetts and important to the economy. So I thank the school committee for supporting policies of non-discrimination. I hope the American government will continue to work on that, and I hope that some of the leadership that's non-discriminatory here in Melrose becomes a model for other parts and other levels of government where some leaders have struggled. I thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your commitment to young people and to Melrose. Thank you so much. At this time, I would entertain the close of public comment. So moved. Second. Second. seconded by Mr. Obremski. Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? That
▶ 11:25 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: motion carries unanimously. Next on our agenda is a need for an executive session. We plan to enter executive session in order to approve executive session minutes of January 9th, 2018 and to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with the MEA. We will return to public session. May i have a motion to enter into executive session so moved made by ms mcandrew second second seconded by ms de sel discussion may i have a roll call vote please mr obremski yes mr o'connell yes mia dolan yes ms mcandrew yes mr selm yes ms rosie thomas yes ms driscoll yes we are now in executive session we will return to public session i don't know if denise is here yet i told her about 8 10. we have now now uh re-entered public session and it is my pleasure to announce that
▶ 12:30 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: the school committee um has approved disclosed and made it will make available to the public upon request in accordance with the massachusetts open meeting law and public records law the minutes of executive session of january 9 2018 subject to redactions recommended by the chair and her council based on a determination that disclosure would defeat the lawful purpose of the executive session next on our agenda this evening is the announcements of the superintendent of schools superintendent tamar right a couple of things um and really i'm speaking more to the public than the members of the school committee um the flu has arrived and it's making its way through our buildings along with the neurovirus sometimes we can't tell which which is which
▶ 13:19 dpw as always terrific partners are trying to stay ahead of it disinfecting the buildings have brought a particular disinfectant that's supposed to hit something like seven viruses or bacteria wiping down continuously when a case of flu is reported they send in the green team to wipe down all the common areas again but it is making its way through the buildings um and i really ask parents for two things stress the importance of washing your hands and if your trial child is sick please keep your child home until for 48 hours until after the temperature has broken i know this is difficult for working parents having been there but this is spreading faster every day and we've got a long way to go until february break so that is one announcement i
▶ 14:13 wanted to make my other announcements are in there ms driscoll already referred to we're very excited about tomorrow the community teaching day my roots are showing and my staff has come along for the ride on this but they're excited the most important thing is the staff see this as a real good opportunity to connect with children to build on relationships and to share their love of learning with the kids and I look forward to what happens at the middle school in the high school with this and the other thing that I have is a kudos some of you may know we had an incident I think it's ten days ago on a Friday basketball game a gentleman in these stands had went into cardiac accurate arrest our staff and one of our off-duty firefighters were able to
▶ 15:02 revive the gentleman and he's had some follow-up treatment is according to what I've been told is doing well but I am really thankful for the training our people have had I think it's important any questions for our superintendent mr. cell please pass along our thanks to your staff that assisted the gentleman my son was in the stands videoing the game and was very well aware of what happened he said it was very orderly and very quick and I commend you all thank you very good next on our agenda is the consent agenda which tonight contains the following items the school committee regular meeting minutes of January 9th 2018 a second vote required on policy EBB first aid a second vote required on
▶ 15:55 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: policy EEAEA vehicle driver examination and training second vote required on policy EFC reduced and free lunch program and the warrants as follows FY 18 school s 18024 in the amount of three hundred twenty nine thousand seventy dollars and 82 cents FY 18 December meals tax s 1 8 0 2 5 and then yeah in the amount of 71 dollars and 71 cents FY 18 December MVM MS wire transfer s 1 8 0 2 6 and the amount of 34 dollars FY 18 December wire transfer s 1 8 0 2 7 in the amount of thirty seven thousand one hundred eighty seven dollars and sixty four cents and FY 18 school s 18028 in the amount of four thousand eight hundred and sixty eight dollars and twenty five cents would anyone like to remove anything from tonight's consent agenda seeing none do I have a motion
▶ 16:52 for approval so moved so by mr. O'Connell seconded by mr. Salm all in favor opposed that motion carries unanimously next on our agenda is the Finance and Facilities Subcommittee. Mr. Selma. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to Finance and Facilities Subcommittee. First item on our agenda is a statement of interest for the MSBA Accelerated Repair Program. There is a vote required. I defer now to the Superintendent. Thank you, Mr. Selma. I'm going to ask Ms. Gaffey, the City Planner, to come forward. We have an opportunity to do an Accelerated Repair Plan. We've done these twice before. one was the science labs at the high school and one was the Hoover windows and these are very good opportunities for us to address facilities concerns
▶ 18:07 Denise Gaffey: good evening I'm Denise Gaffey the director of planning and community development and I've been working with mayor Dolan and superintendent a more on this latest initiative as the superintendent mentioned we have applied in the past to the MSBA for accelerated repair grant programs and these are really nice opportunities for us to address some deficient very specific deficiencies in our school buildings around heating plant or roof or windows and at the same time you get about 50 percent reimbursement on our investment so in this instance we're looking to apply for a portion of the high school roof some of you may recall that about ten years ago we applied for funding through the green repair program it was a similar program only at that time they
▶ 18:58 Denise Gaffey: were looking at focusing on energy efficiency initiatives and a roof replacement with insulation and counted in under that category so we applied for and received a grant to do portions of the high school roof the high school is an enormous building as you know so we were targeting the portions of the roof at that time that had that were original to the 1974 building and the portion over the learning commons which is about 18 000 square feet was replaced in 1995 so when we did our feasibility study our consultants suggested that we could get another 10 years worth of um of light of life out of the roof if we just replaced the seams so that's what we did so it was about nine years ago that we did that project we replaced about 42 000 square feet of roofing over portions of the high
▶ 19:51 Denise Gaffey: school and then repaired this particular portion of the roof so we're we're planning ahead now because we're just about you know close to that 10-year period and and of course as all of you know in the interim this the district made a huge investment in the space below that in the learning Commons so we want to make sure to protect that investment and this is a great opportunity to do that and get potentially get 50% of the funding reimbursed by the state so this is a formality many of you have seen this before it's a statement of interest that the school committee and the Board of Aldermen are required to to vote on and it doesn't obligate the district to pursue um a grant if we were lucky enough to get awarded one it also doesn't obligate it
▶ 20:41 obligate the msba to award us a grant it's just a procedural vote to say that the school district and the board of aldermen are aware of this opportunity and they're supportive of it at this point i would recommend entertain a motion to accept motion made by mayor dolan seconded by Ms. Driscoll discussion or questions seeing none all in favor motion passes unanimously thank you very much thank you thank you very much next on our agenda is the mid-year budget update at this time I would invite Ms. Farrell to the table and invite Superintendent Tamar to speak so I just wanted to inform the school committee we it is not unusual for us to freeze the budget it varies from year to year when we do that this year we were
▶ 21:45 fortunate we did not freeze the budget until we returned from the holiday break sometimes we've done it as early as November so as a result no purchases that were not planned will be made without mine and miss Farrell's approval and all salaries have been incumbent so that they are accounted for so miss Farrell will bring you up to date beyond that so the mid-year update is very similar to what you see at the beginning of every month it's an accounting for all of the accounts that we have with totals at the bottom so that you can see what we were appropriated with at the beginning of the year how much has been spent to date how much is encumbered for those future purchases and what the available budget is when we talk about the freeze that is something that we put
▶ 22:36 on at some point in the year when we feel that we've made the majority of those purchases that are needed to to get us through the school year for those are things that are going to come up at the end of the year for example graduation expenses you might not be doing that now but you've encumbered those funds so they will be there always will be some unexpected thing that comes up and so that's why we want to make sure that we are prepared in case of those types of situations if you were to compare this report today with the same report last year you would look at the bottom line and say wow we have about a million dollars more so when you look at it a little more closely you'll also notice that at this point today when this was run we've not paid out our
▶ 23:23 collaborative tuitions yet we've just received the money on the grants for that now that the money is here we will be paying that out so when we pay those tuitions out we're basically at the same place we were last year so I feel very comfortable with the spending we're not anticipating any major changes for the rest of the year but we all know that things whether it's special education costs or homeless transportation those types of things we cannot predict for but I believe that we're in a good place to manage anything that might come our way in the next couple of months so I'll entertain any questions if you have any if I may what outliers do you expect what big surprises I really don't know
▶ 24:11 again though the two that I mentioned are the kind of wild cards that are out there you know you could have a family move into the district and that student has an IEP or there needs to be some testing done those we would be required to do again not really sure same thing with homeless you know that is a very difficult situation this year we've seen a huge increase in our population and there are expenses that we have to cover if that does occur very good thank you very much lastly on the finance facilities agenda tonight is a This is superintendent's budget narrative for fiscal year 19. Superintendent? Thank you, Mr. Stone, and so it begins. For those of you who have done this before with us, this is approximately a four-month journey.
▶ 25:08 It goes up and down, the numbers move constantly. The closer we get to the end of the year, the better City Hall's numbers are. At this point in time, as we're sitting here, the governor is making his speech, I believe. So a lot depends on the finances of the state as well as the tax revenues of the city. However, even given that, my job is to propose to you what I believe we need any given year so that we can continue to make the progress we have been making over the many previous years. Every year, we set goals, and I try to make the connection between the goals the school committee has set and what I am asking for. I am particularly pleased by the goals that we set last fall in retreat. Because I think those goals speak to the work we do on a day in day out basis without drilling down into specifics that are limiting.
▶ 26:19 We want students to be engaged because we're providing them with a first rate, rigorous and creative curriculum. We want our educators to be well trained and want to work in Melrose because we provide them with a professional learning community that they find rewarding as well as fiscally rewarding. It is your job to have strategic leadership and to think about all the moving pieces that impact the decisions we make and what we have available and what we don't have available. And, of course, it is your job as well as mine and my administration's to work with our parents and our other stakeholders so that they understand what we are trying to achieve for our children and to have them feel that they can support us because they believe in what we are doing.
▶ 27:15 The number one problem that we continue to face is enrollment. There is no escaping it. I give you some numbers in this. while we will reap additional chapter 70 money for the enrollment increases last year if you are not aware it was a negative because we paid out so much to charter schools so while the there is a financial reward for having more children it does not always play out in real dollars the enrollment we are up to three thousand nine hundred and twelve as the mayor referenced in previous conversations we have to some degree neglected the high school as our wave has entered the elementary's that wave seems to have broken off and we now have two waves we have a wave at the high school and we
▶ 28:20 a wave at the elementary the elementary wave will eventually get to the middle school i think it is imperative that we begin to look at the need for teachers at the high school at the same time if we have 300 students pre-register for kindergarten beginning on sunday i will know that we are on our way to another 15 class for k and that has a domino effect not only in the need for two more teachers but as the elementary population grows you need specialists and as I point out in my narrative a major concern is the size of the Winthrop the Roosevelt and the Lincoln and the need for some sort of mid-level administrative help for the principals there I point out to you for those of you who have children in high school
▶ 29:21 school you're familiar with it those of you who don't many many years ago when some of us in this room went to high school we did not have to be scheduled every period of the day you sort of filled your schedules with study halls some of us even went to schools where we had open campus those days are long gone our high school students are scheduled every period of the day seven periods it's a six period day it's a waterfall schedule drop a period every day but they have to meet the mass core to graduate so they have very full schedules our children part of the work that we're doing around competency based education is how to be more thoughtful and innovative about meeting those obligations as well as meeting kids interests so that they have more
▶ 30:19 flexibility sometimes I get a little concerned that our high school kids are sort of locked in and sometimes cannot pursue the things that I'm really passionate about on top of it all there are always new mandates from the state we have talked at length about the civics mandate that is coming and again I'm not passing judgment on it it just is what it is hopefully it'll be at the eighth grade and we're getting prepared for that but the computer science or the computing knowledge mandate is also coming a lot faster than we thought and we will have to find a way to incorporate that into our program of studies as well as to find trained teachers I'm obviously not going to read this word for word for you but in terms of enrollment I am asking for possibly
▶ 31:12 2.0 FTEs, FTEs for laymen are full-time teaching equivalencies, elementary classroom teachers. Another 1.0 FTE for specials, a 1.0 FTE to divide between the Roosevelt, thank you, and the Winthrop, I had to think which schools, I'll come back to that in a moment, a 1.0 fte for high school humanities our most overcrowded courses are in social studies in english that's a compliment to our teachers who offer great electives that our kids love a 1.0 fte music and art one of the hallmarks of melrose is our performing arts and our fine arts programs more students want to take these classes we're trying to jury rig it a little bit by doing semester courses but the staff at the upper level would really like to offer full-blown courses an academic facilitator as we move to
▶ 32:22 competency-based education as you provide kids with independent learning opportunities extended learning opportunities and blended learning opportunities somebody has to work with those children you cannot put kids in front of a computer in a corner of the library and think it's gonna work they have to have an adult working with them and of course as the numbers grow at the high school we need more counseling and guidance we are probably at the recommended limit right now of 250 to 1 the person at the Roosevelt and the Winthrop were referring to as the student services coordinator quite frankly it's a title we made up last year we did not want to call it assistant principal because it's not necessarily the way most people think of assistants
▶ 33:14 principals it's not about discipline it's about how do we help kids succeed we have a number of children with challenging behaviors we have a number of children with who have been traumatized we have kids with school phobia we need somebody who is the liaison to parents on all that and help these children succeed when that work ties up the principal she is being pulled in one case he is being pulled off the other work that they do as the instructional leaders and the primary evaluators in their buildings unlike the middle school in the high school most the principals are responsible for most probably 90% of the evaluations at their buildings at the upper levels we have directors and other and assistant principals but the most important role
▶ 34:04 is the work they are doing with some of our kids who need more help to succeed and quite frankly not to disrupt the learning of other children English learner it's now English learners everybody get your acronyms right it's now EL it's L's not ELL's we're at 167 students that is more than double what it was when I came into this district five and a half years ago we expanded the program to Hoover but what we are finding is where we're really having a service need at this point in time is at the high school in the middle school We've had a number of newcomers to this country who are older children who are coming in at level 1 language skills. The other thing that we're anticipating is the LOOK Act which I shared with you which could change the way we do
▶ 35:16 English language services. We have a year to get ready and of course the last thing is I did include in the the CPR finding around translations so what I am asking for in terms of English language learners is an additional 0.5 ESL teacher funding for curriculum materials for increased enrollment and funding for translation and interpreter services you all know the difference right between translation and interpreter okay special education our numbers are holding steady actually our percentage has decreased a little because our physical numbers are holding steady while our population has gone up we're pretty good on our out of district kids we're holding that in the low 40s that of course is subject to
▶ 36:10 change depending on a child's needs what we have done in special education over the past five years and I'm sorry Patty has left is what we revisit our programs all the time to see where our needs are so for an example three years ago at the Horace Mann we had a language learning class a class for kids who had language-based disabilities we don't have a lot of those children anymore at the elementary so we disbanded that class took that position and reassigned it for a new class for kids with on the autism spectrum at a different building so we will reassess the programs rethink where staff can go and we'll try to move them around that way a few years ago what we were able to do is we were able
▶ 37:06 to make a decision that we had not not the kindergarten Paris take that out of this conversation but we had a surplus of special ed Paris based on our IEPs that were being written the formula that I typically use is every four Paris buys us one teacher so a few years ago we were able to use the reduction in Paris and we actually that's how we actually added the fourth the school site second school psychologist at the middle school so we do a lot of that in special education to be cost efficient as well as effective but my concern with special ed is probably the downside of success in special education special educators including myself say our dream is to put ourselves out of business to have models
▶ 38:04 of inclusion and servicing where we're not needed and what has happened in Melrose is to a great degree many many more of our children are included I mean the fact that we only have 43 children out of district is significant I've worked in smaller districts where I've had two and a half times that number and not a district but our commitment to keeping our kids in district also means we're committed to keeping more severely disabled children in district children who typically would have been sent out the minute they showed up in early intervention and that is going to be a learning journey for all of us I'm trying to be very discreet here because I have children I certainly do not want them to feel identified but we have some children coming up through the ranks
▶ 38:54 that may need more one-on-one service may need medical services and so that is an anticipation that we have going forward and I just want to make you aware of it the most important thing right now on the special education but budget is probably funding for professional development as we've had turnover in our staff we need to make sure that our new staff know how to do inclusion right and as we have some children who are more complicated we need to train those teachers how to respond to those more complicated children it's like I said it's a journey and so we need to be able to fund that appropriately anticipated curriculum changes I've already spoken to we know the civics curriculum is probably coming in about a year's time mr. mr. O'Connell
▶ 39:58 is heavily involved in that we will pilot next year what we think is a reasonable approach I do not know what the expectation will be in FY 19 18 is coming up FY 19 as to materials the science and engineering we continue to build out one unit at a time it is slow going this year DESE redid the frameworks last time they redid them was 2011 they did them in 2017 only six years apart the humanities department and the coaches are making recommendations for some updated materials that we're going to need in response to the revised framework and again all the other changes that come our way some of them are immediate some of them I'm just giving you a heads up because part of your strategic leadership goal is that you should begin
▶ 41:00 to think about these things one thing that did happen this year is one of the AP courses one of the advanced placement courses also has revised curriculum so that we did not expect and we will have to purchase the appropriate materials for our kids the other thing at the high school that you should be aware of with the growth in enrollment we have to fill out sets of textbooks when you all of a sudden have two classrooms of you know advanced calculus and you only have 30 texts and you need 50 we have to fill that out those those textbook collections so I asked for all of that we have left Mimsy we continue to train our teachers not only in new curriculum but in AP curriculum we need to pay for
▶ 41:53 that ourselves also in the forthcoming budget will be money to continue the CBE work the grant runs out I am trying to find another grant grant source it is not easy but we will include in the budget money for to continue the CBE work. Contractual obligations, we are in the process of negotiating four of our contracts. I list them for you. That is unpredicted at this time. To predetermine how much you're going to give staff is illegal, unethical, at the very least. Transportation, ongoing problem. We own our own vans, we do a lot of our own transportation but we do contract independently we've had this conversation many times in this chamber they're going from 425 to 450 a bus next year this Farrell continues to explore what will be involved if we were to buy
▶ 42:53 some bigger vans for ourselves we can discuss that with the committee when we begin the deliberations it's a little bit more complicated than we anticipated there are more restrictions on who can drive the larger vans what they can be use for and we're trying to brainstorm creatively around those health insurance I don't think any of you missed the article on the front page of the globe today so that continues so I wrote about seven pages I'm certainly not going to read seven pages to you but I am willing to answer questions Ms. McAndrew thank you this is very informative and super helpful as you mentioned obviously enrollment is sort of the x-factor here and not just I assume at the kindergarten but even throughout the district including at the
▶ 43:53 Jennifer McAndrew: high school but we do know as you mentioned that we'll have at least three elementary schools with more than 400 kids and some pushing 450 so I was really pleased to see the student services coordinator positions mentioned here for Roosevelt and with them I'm wondering for my benefit and maybe the public also if you could say a little bit about how that pilots working at the Lincoln and sort of maybe give us a few examples of the kinds of things that they're they do or would do and in the Roosevelt and Winthrop so very different populations the reason we put it in the Lincoln first is quite frankly the Lincoln is our most diverse school it's my largest EL population it's a more transient population because of the housing stock in that part of the town
▶ 44:39 you have more apartments you have Oak Grove the position there is only a 0.5 position if we could do a 1.0 we would absolutely gladly do it the person who is in the position is a skilled administrator has done other things for us she spends a lot of time working with our behaviorally challenged children she goes into classrooms to help teachers figure out intervention plans that they called fair plans she'll often go into model approaches to working with children she will meet with parents and outside agencies when that has to happen She leads the crisis team, every one of our buildings has a crisis team and they are all trained in crisis prevention and intervention. Donna Rosso is the trainer for the district and when necessary does crisis intervention.
▶ 45:42 She does that two and a half days a week. Obviously you cannot pick when a kid goes into crisis, but it's the best we can do. I think it's beginning to make some headway in that building I think the building is getting a little bit more stabilized there's some other issues there that we need to figure out so it's very different in that building when Mary Beth Marato discussed it with me her needs are similar yet different Mary Beth Marato has some of our serious sub separate special education programs with kids with a number of challenges often unpredictable she needs some help around that actually she has more children than Lincoln numbers wise supporting the teachers in the classroom has become challenging she cannot get to
▶ 46:44 every classroom and if you're not familiar with it our principals try to to get to every classroom every week whether it's to observe whether it's to support a teacher whether it's to make contact with children that's what we try to do supervision in the cafeteria has gotten difficult there if you are a Roosevelt parent I think two of you are three of you are it's a little loud and rambunctious so it's all those things that need to be done at Winthrop again it's more of a supervision there at over 400 part of the issue with Winthrop quite frankly is the configuration of the building that works against you I've been in that building and try to run from the basement where all 4ks are to the third floor where the upper
▶ 47:42 classrooms are if something happens so again for him it's pretty much a supervision but it's also supporting teachers he does not have some of the diversity that the other buildings have thank you can you tell us a little bit about the future curriculum needs you mentioned in computer science so what you what your wish list would look like there oh god I don't know and I'm involved in a couple of groups right now at the state level Jen and we're trying to figure this out we're trying to collaborate with the desi on this on how this is going to play out and those of you well there's only three of you from before who remember me speaking to this there is a real belief in the state based on the business communities needs that computer science is a foundational
▶ 48:41 skill now ranking it up there with english math social studies science and i'm not talking about java or you know whatever else the languages are called we're talking about understanding how computers work how you can program them um you know coding how you can use computers because there is not a job especially in massachusetts that does not involve computers even mine um And the fact that our kids are going to go into a future in which everything is going to be computer-based and changing rapidly, they have to have computational knowledge and skills. So the state has begun to move in that direction. A couple of years ago, they came out with the computer science and digital literacy standards, but they were not mandated.
▶ 49:37 They encouraged all of us to embed them and other things we were doing in the past year they have accelerated their development of that area of the curriculum they've developed a standard to be licensed as a computer science teacher they never had that standard before they have begun to have discussions with there's a car there's a nonprofit group called mass can Massachusetts computer something network don't ask me I think I think I've written it up in something else I've written you that is working with the state on what will the jaw jaw market need in 2020 2030 2040 and how do we get those courses in their training into school systems the preliminary goal is that within the next couple of years 30
▶ 50:33 percent of all high school graduates come out with computer knowledge beyond what we're all sitting here doing there is not enough computer science teachers in the in the state right now we were lucky we snagged one of the few certified ones some of my colleagues are just bending the rules and saying well they had a job at IBM or they had a job at you know Google or Facebook they're ahead of everybody else let's go with them and take a chance so this is changing rapidly much faster than the superintendents first thought it would I sat here a year ago and would have told you it was three years out right now I'm thinking it's a year out and somehow we're gonna have to find a way not only only to embed it in everything but for those kids who have real interest in
▶ 51:34 this field to give them a pathway in this the other thing that I say and I say it often not every child is meant for college I know that's sacrosanct in a community like Melrose and the same as was as is the community I raised my own children but one of those things that we are finding out is children with these skills are probably getting better high-paying jobs than some of our kids who are coming out with four-year degrees and you can get the you can get these skills in a two-year college or a technology training program or some sort of apprenticeship thank you any further questions that concludes finance and facilities I leave one budget housekeeping note on the 13th of February we discuss begin discussing fees so please pay attention for that look for that to come up
▶ 52:37 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: and i believe on i had neglected to put on the rolling agenda the march 20th tentative date for the committee and so i thank ms de salm for reminding me of that so that will go on the rolling agenda so please mark your calendars uh as a penciled in date and as we go along we'll see how we go excellent thank you very much next on our agenda is the educational programs and personnel subcommittee mr o'connell thank you very much good evening folks welcome to the ep and p portion of our program my name is ed o'connell i am the new chair of this subcommittee in which capacity i'm ably assisted by my vice chair John Abramski. We have one item on the EP&P agenda this evening and it is the superintendent's proposed school cancellation project. A few introductory
▶ 53:33 remarks if you'll indulge me. I would note that what's being proposed is a pilot project which at this point would run for just about two months. I would also note among the several revisions and updates in this proposal as compared to the one that was before us in November that there are significant changes in revisions with regard to program review including language speaking to parent surveys teacher input and student focus groups I would also note that there is now language speaking directly to the concerns that were raised with regard to students on IEPs and those students otherwise receiving services it is my understanding that this proposal as revised is the product of discussions and work by the labor management committee and I think all
▶ 54:37 would agree that anytime we have a proposal in which teachers have input on the front end that is a benefit I'll also report that I have been in touch with my counterparts in Burlington and Wakefield two communities where similar projects are underway and the feedback I've received from school committee members in those communities has been positive from the school committee perspective in that what has been related to me is that the school committees there clearly have felt that this is an idea an initiative worth pursuing at the same time those school committees reported that the feedback from the communities has been mixed and that in each community these projects are very much a work in progress and I suspect it will be no different here in
▶ 55:35 Melrose as a pilot program ultimately what I would say for me I think the key benefit of this proposal is the opportunity that it provides for students to connect with their schools with their learning and with their teachers not only on a day a snow day where they otherwise would not but most importantly at a time of year when it's so valuable typical snow days November December January February March critical times of year for educational purposes as compared to days tacked on at the end of the school year as mandated by law so there's a timing piece of this and I think there's also a momentum piece here these school cancellation days come at a time of year when momentum is inevitably inexorably and appropriately building through the school year unlike
▶ 56:45 those days added on at the end of the school year so all of that said since Since we have no place to go, Madam Superintendent, please. Thank you, and he did, he did a great job. And Mr. O'Connell and I met last week on this in his role as Chair of Programs and Personnel. Again, there was feedback given in November and I brought it back to principals and labor management. I ask the principals to connect with their school site councils and their PTOs, as well as teachers in their buildings, and to ask for feedback. I think as Mr. O'Connell has said, it remains mixed, and I don't have an answer for that. I don't think anything we ever do in education is 100% perfect. I don't think anything we ever do in education is 100% acceptable to every member of our community.
▶ 57:47 just the nature of the job it's a very human business and everybody has opinions and wishes and their own children to consider I brought it back with the corrections made and actually added some more based on some conversations with some of you independently for two reasons first of all I am concerned about this winter we've had two days we almost had a third and I am concerned about how late we go in June while I think we're less than honest to talk about June days being as quality driven as days in January February March and April it's a it's a reality of life especially once you get past MCAS and that's a concern of teachers is once you get past MCAS they've lost momentum and anything they can get done prior to MCAS is
▶ 58:51 important to them so I think the productivity for our students there is a difference in productivity as you flow through the year I think that as I said to some of you independently and as I just referenced one of your goals is educator development and we need time for that it was referenced earlier in in this evening about more time in the calendar in the day i would want nothing better but i've done these calculations every year currently to add a day to our calendar is 120 000 to add 15 minutes to our calendar is approximately 1.6 million dollars we make choices every day of our lives about money would i rather have more days or more time in the day absolutely would i rather have a system like the rest of the country where we
▶ 59:47 only have a march vacation and not a february and april absolutely but those are matters that are beyond me what i'm trying to address is what we're doing here in melrose um i think the the the last thing uh not the last thing the next thing is quite frankly um nobody is punished for not doing the work we have kids all the time who don't do work at home for whatever reasons pump big piece of competency-based education and the habits of learning that we are going to pilot we are piloting right now as I shared two weeks ago is trying to help kids understand the disconnect between doing work because you have a responsibility to be an active learner and to be an independent learner in doing work because somebody's going to
▶ 1:00:40 lower your grade ten points for every day that it's late so we certainly will not punish children for this but we want children to become independent learners teachers do not get the day off they are going to have office hours I'm not even going to go down that road about people who say why should teachers get the day off I just can't go there right now considering how many hours most of my staff work weekends summers and every other day of the week I think that the last thing is we are trying to be an innovative district and innovation means taking risks and sometimes you succeed and sometimes you feel but if you wait for the conditions to be perfect on an experiment or a pilot or a risk you will
▶ 1:01:37 never take any and I will remind you of some of the risks we have taken beginning when I got here the very first summer I got here I had a parent come and say to me I have a child who was very bright she would like to take a third language your schedule doesn't allow her to do that at that time Mary Ann was principal and I said why can't we figure this out why can't we find a away for a child to take a third language if she's interested and we found that became the basis of the blended and online learning that is just every day in our high school five years later okay that was a risk we took we've taken other risks creating the academic facilitator position at the high school the people in this room supported me in doing that I had an idea I had an
▶ 1:02:31 idea about how we begin to introduce flexible and personalized learning for kids you took a risk on my idea this is how we've been operating CBE I brought it forward you took a risk on that idea to this day I don't know where CBE is going I know we're making progress but I don't know what the final product will look like that will be determined by a lot of people not just staff but parents and children I to me this is for three days a risk worth taking and getting feedback from parents about what this looks like in learn and understanding where kids need more support about being independent learners and where kids are ready to fly as for the equity piece we are trying to address that MEF has
▶ 1:03:29 provided us with some equipment at the middle school at the elementary level There are low-tech and non-tech alternatives for kids. I will also say this out loud. I find it interesting where people pick their arguments about equity. IXL is very much part of this district. It's summer work. It's weekend work. And I'm not getting into a debate about IXL's worth. But IXL is a given in every classroom. and nobody in this room ever brought up the equity issue about IXL I said excuse me nobody at this horseshoe ever brought it up okay so to me you're either willing to take the risk or you're not if you're not willing to take the risk so be it but believe me I'll bring back something else that's a risk
▶ 1:04:29 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: for you to take but at some point if you want to be innovative creative and a progressive district you have to take risks very good Thank You mr. school yeah thank you I supported this in its previous iteration and in this new iteration I like this even better I like the fact that it's a pilot program and should it be the will of the committee to proceed with this pilot program tonight I would very much want to hear the results at the end of the school year so that the community and the committee could listen and consider for the future but I think that's a good way to allow for innovation and also collect feedback and then to in our oversight role ask you to provide that to us for future considerations so I am in full support of trying this and encouraging
▶ 1:05:28 all of your folks to take all of this to heart and and work hard on it and I have no doubt that they will so I fully support this proposal before us tonight and I would make a motion for approval sir second to the motion to approve second second by mr. Gander it like a discussion on the motion mr. so mr. Cambridge mr. sound please I would propose an amendment to the proposal on the table to approve this as written but for it to be implemented fall of 2018 to ensure proper time for planning parent education and teacher development as was reference we needed time for outreach and teacher development second that that's second so discussion on the motion to amend to move this to next year Mr. Mayor please so uh from the chair uh to Mr. Selm so you this would be a pilot program for next
▶ 1:06:34 year or would there be a permanent program for next year this would be a pilot program for next year as written the proposal as written at points talks about it starting in the fall and then continuing on as a pilot and at other points talks about it being implemented today with the three remaining extra days so I merely try to clarify starting in the fall for the record it's not gonna snow for the rest of the year any further discussion on the motion to amend to move this to next here miss McAndrew please thank you and through you to the superintendent I'm interested in your view on how this would affect how moving it to the fall what the implications that would be for versus doing it now as you see it what I
▶ 1:07:32 would ask for is clarification if it's a pilot in the fall that means all five snow days are can be used for this right now you only have three snow days left so are you limiting how many snow days next year it can be useful please mr. so if I may the motion as written limits it to three days on its face so I would continue that limit to three three days mr. school please I I appreciate that I think a pilot can start with especially with the level of detail that is here before us um now because it gives us a shorter window to try it so um i um appreciate the amendment but would not support it any further discussion on the motion that i'm in please miss rosie thomas can i just ask some questions please please do yes absolutely excuse my lack
▶ 1:08:29 of knowledge with the procedures so i'm wondering if you can give us further clarity about what you you mean by office hours so we we do that now so it when when the staff are doing something online or they'll say to the kids I'm going to be checking you work between 8 and 10 on Friday so basically it's a warning to the kids that you better have work up there between 8 and 10 if you want the teacher checking it so it's it's that type of office hours it's kind of using Google classroom probably interaction back and forth between the teacher and the student yes so what if there's no power with the at the teachers home because not all the teachers live in Melrose with our wonderful electrical grid that
▶ 1:09:16 never goes out but what happens if either the child or the parent or the teacher doesn't have electricity or capacity to have office hours well remotely that's that's a possibility in any storm and in that case i suppose we would just start from scratch and count it as a snow day and make it up i would also not invoke this easily it's calling snow is not something i don't do easily the mayor will tell you he's often on the phone with me at 5 30 in the morning where i'm saying i'm not doing this yet um because it's not something i like to do i think i believe kids belong in school and we all agree that nothing's better for students than to have direct instruction from the teacher that knows them really well
▶ 1:10:04 in person instead of parents trying to figure this out during a snow day when they're trying to figure out how to get to work themselves so it's obviously you're not in control of the weather we're not in control of the weather it's beyond all of us but i i think what i've read from the the letters that have been sent to us is that I think it seems to me like the parents really need to be taught more about competency-based education, online learning, and all of that in order to be more comfortable with using this as a protocol. So I worry about the long-term effects to competency-based education if we don't roll this out correctly and make sure that parents are really trained up on what to do in these
▶ 1:10:49 perhaps through the parent university or PTOs you know different meetings in different ways sometimes we need to train parents just as much as we need to teach kids so I'm a little worried about doing this so quickly in the middle of the winter point of order please mr. yeah I believe so we're gonna be discussing the amendment is that correct so that so I believe our discussion should pertain exclusively to the amendment on the floor which is to postpone the entire proposal until the fall is that correct mr. some please correct the motion and while the previous while our colleague did go into competency-based education she did address that the put the issue of postponing very good just want to make sure everybody's clear on on what we're
▶ 1:11:47 what we're talking about Thank You mr. school so we might I guess a question is so would we vote again in the fall whether we are going to adopt this as a pilot our adopt our vote no no the amendment on if I may chair please thank you sir the amendment is to approve this tonight but for habit to have it start in the fall and have the audit happen by April 2019 as is written and then for the feedback to come back with all the parent outreach and feedback that occurs as well as teachers teacher survey etc so my issue is and you know people would be surprised by this because I am an educator that I'm not completely in favor of this but that being said for specifically special education students and EL students who learn so much from their peers and from
▶ 1:12:47 that interaction with other children and that modeling from other children in the letters that we've received people have spoken to that quite a bit especially the special education students and so how do how do we really address that so again two things happen we're an inclusion school system our expectations for our special education students and our ELs are the same as they are for any general ed student if you are in I'm going to pick on mr. Tuchinati who's sitting very quietly in the back of the room if you are in his English class and you're a special education class student the expectations to write a paper in his class and no different than the expectations of any other kids sitting in this classroom so to think that the
▶ 1:13:42 demands on a special education child is less just because they are in SPED as a former SPED director I find disturbing oh no I don't think it's less okay no no I don't want to say it's less I want to say that they benefit right but every child from the interaction every child benefits letters that we've received right specifically note that but every child benefits greatly you can be the kid who is the please God don't ever let their teacher call on me not receiving service child and you are benefiting from being in that room and hearing the discussion so for me that is not a distinction all our children benefit that's number one I think the letters you received well what is about people worried about kids who get specialized services and what I would say to any
▶ 1:14:34 parent how many kids had got makeup services from the two days in January that we were out how many kids in your building and you're a heavily EL district got makeup services from the two days that we were out what happens is you come back in after a snow day we pick up where we left off teachers check in with kids individually to say how you doing do you need a little help here today it's been three days since I saw you that is how we operate as educators what I have put in here that was not in the previous one is a requirement that after three days we would check to see if a kid has experienced any regression all right but in both the EL law and the special ed law there is an acknowledgement of what is called incidental absences you are absent as a
▶ 1:15:31 teacher the kid is absent as a kid you may be sick you may have gone on a field trip none of those change it again I fully respect people's protection of their children I really and truly do I was a you know a mama tiger too at one point in my life but I've also been in this business a very long time and I've also raised three children and I have great faith in kids I have great faith kids to find their way to learn from each other to help each other and I sometimes think when we when we underestimate our children's ability to be independent learners we do them just as much a disservice and that is a concern for me and one of the things that we have to work better at is helping kids be independent learners and I'm going to throw this out here because
▶ 1:16:32 it's something I say to my staff all the time that we need to help parents understand especially when you're a disabled child there are no sped banks there are no sped grocery stores there's no driver school for just sped kids our job is to get all our children to be independent self-sufficient as we can they can possibly be before they leave us and for me this is one more step in it very good let's tend to procedure folks any further discussion on the motion to amend to move this proposal to next year seeing none all those in favor of the motion to move this proposal the motion to amend I'm sorry to move this proposal to next year point of clarification the proposal is not to move it to next year but to approve it to implement understood thank you thank
▶ 1:17:28 Jennifer McAndrew: you for the clarification all is in favor of the motion to amend to in favor those opposed and the balance of those so the motion to amend fails which brings us back to the main motion to approve this any further and final discussion on the motion to approve this please miss McHenry so I have a just one clarification and then just a question about communication around this the clarification is so I just want to understand and I know that you mentioned this in the materials in here but that the adoption of the pilot would not influence the threshold for cancellation of school I recognize that these are tough calls but I think you know just to address this issue because it's been in the news I think we've all heard about the call in Wakefield and other
▶ 1:18:26 Jennifer McAndrew: districts most recently last week and I just want to sort of raise and reinforce my own support for the idea that this would not in some way adjust the threshold that's my understanding I just want to clarify that if this passes and is implemented as a pilot and I'm personally very glad to see it put forth as a pilot time limited and that there's as mr. O'Connell mentioned many opportunities for feedback and focus groups how would that feedback and the summaries of the feedback that you and your staff get after assuming we have a snow day maybe we won't and it's and it's actually piloted be communicated back to the wider community and parents and the rest of the district so the first obligation is always when we get that type of information is to bring it
▶ 1:19:24 to you first and after it's brought to you it's disseminated through the buildings via the principals via PTOs and school site councils and when would you anticipate that would happen I'm just asking like for a season like summer before the fall no it would probably happen by the end of the school okay any further discussion please mr. so and I just want to note that two things if I may one we have teachers and staff we are we pride ourselves on a district and a school committee in allowing our teachers to explore things on their own and innovate in their classes to that end I am aware of some staff that have innovated and attempted this during those two days that we had off so if we are approving this tonight are we not in fact approving a new
▶ 1:20:33 policy pilot for the district this is programmatic it's not policy except that it comes to canceling school and what would what the policy would be with regards to the expectations of our kids I don't know if there's a policy around canceling school there's a policy around when you plan the calendar and that you have to adhere to the regulations and this adheres to the regulations now that the DESE has allowed it but there is no there's no policy on how I cancel school and make that call the only policy that we have as a district is our obligation to do 180 days plus 990 hours at the secondary level and 900 hours at the elementary and under the desi's and desi has retreated from that by putting forth
▶ 1:21:31 the information I shared with all of you on what are they calling it alternative instruction school days they've retreated from that their own their own requirement so if I made the second half of this is since the since we are very positive on allowing giving our staff and teachers the latitude to explore and innovate why do we need the formal program vote tonight to approve this because according to DESE in order for it to count as a school day I need your vote teachers are going to do this with or without you that was evident from the two days in June agreed especially if you had a high school kid you know that all right but in order for it to count as one of the 180 that is what the vote
▶ 1:22:25 is needed for I don't need your permission for teachers to say I think there's going to be two days of snow so everybody take home their math book their social studies book and the book that we're about to begin reading if I may that was my point yeah you didn't need our permission which is why we're doing this is for it to count as a school day that is what the information from the states as you very good thank you mr. Essie Thomas can you tell us more about this it sounds like very important professional development that you want to get in at the end of June and so and whether you can mandate the teachers to go to that if they miss these actual in time to go to professional development but this district makes it very
▶ 1:23:10 desirable for them to go to professional development by our contract the more professional development you have the more PDPs advance on the contract but our teachers are also very professional and very invested in it but they also we find that by July 1 it becomes harder we run a huge summer Institute we run three sessions we run the session in June which is a week-long session that we also open up to our neighbors we run a session mid-july that is not as extensive because we have from experience learned it's harder to get people to come to that one and then we run a session in august which we get a few more people at because maybe some people are beginning to get ready to come back but that really is more focused on the
▶ 1:23:57 new teachers and that type of induction program so it we run a full five days we run it in those areas that the professional development committee which is in the contract in which i believe a member of this board's liaises to um determines is the needs of this district it's all tied together that professional development is not willy-nilly it's tied to the goals of the district it's tied to the survey done by the professional development committee as to where we're going and what we need to do it's tied to the street strategic overview and it's also tied to anticipated changes that are coming down the pike so that when our teachers come back in September or late August as many of our staff as possible
▶ 1:24:46 are ready for what is going to happen with our curriculum so the tone of the proposal is that nothing not much is happening at the end of June academically for students and then you also can't mandate the staff the teachers to come to the professional development so if we lose two days because of this going through those are basically potentially a wash for this academic year because the teachers don't have to come to the professional development in June they could come in July or they can come in August and I know most of them are going to do a lot of you know I know what I do in the summer i know that teachers work really hard but i'm still concerned about it feels like we're we're you know we're chained it's a little bit like changing a contract in the middle of a
▶ 1:25:37 contract well again this was done with the labor management committee and again melrose is very forward in the fact that we have had for five years a labor management committee that when it was created agreed that contractual issues could be decided at that table as things arose rather than have to go reopen the contract or do other matters so we've addressed a lot of things at that table and it's worked very well and that's why as mr o'connell said when this became a topic last spring i brought it to them after researching it i brought it to them and i said what do you think is this doable is this something they would agree to and they said yes unanimously so that's all I can tell you about the contractual issue the teachers feel this
▶ 1:26:31 is worthwhile as well again this is what you're elected to do you make this decision however you make this decision I live with it and I implement it or I don't implement it and I work with the staff I've got around whatever decision you made that's the bottom line yeah any final discussion seeing none all those in favor of the proposal so one two three four in favor five in favor those opposed to oppose the motion carries and that concludes the educational programs and personnel portion of our program thank you thank you very much next in our agenda is the subcommittee assignments which you have experienced and enjoyed this evening and they are listed on your agendas for you any quick liaison reports this evening seeing none it is my disappointment and privilege to
▶ 1:27:38 share with you that this is mayor Dolan's final school committee meeting and we will miss him and I would certainly invite anyone who wishes to speak to do so at this time mr. open I may madam chair and I beg your indulgence in advance it is apparently your last school committee meeting mr. mayor at least for the time being and by my calculation it's been eight thousand seven hundred and seventy eight days since your first school committee meeting on January 11 1994 24 years ago you joined the school committee at a tumultuous time in this district's history. Picking up right where your father left off, you joined a committee headed by one Michael Interbartolo. Tumultuous times indeed. Your tenure commenced under tremendous budgetary
▶ 1:28:36 constraints. Pending teacher contract negotiations were just one piece of the puzzle. The negotiation stumbled from one stalemate to the next. Work to rule became the status quo. Teachers assembled in protest at that year's inauguration and while a contract was finally settled and then renegotiated and settled again you also had to deal as a newly elected school committee member with the school budget itself. Then Mayor Lyons allocated just 17 million dollars for the schools that year requiring significant budget cuts by you and your colleagues. You were forced to put off hiring the district's first assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction appointed as you were to the school committee's curriculum subcommittee that surely
▶ 1:29:27 disappointed teachers were laid off positions were eliminated there were six figure cuts to special education even in your first few months in office mr mayor in the face of these inordinate fiscal challenges you are a voice of calm and reason and fiscal prudence opting out of school choice for lack of state funding but saving academic programs in the process all while maintaining focus on creating a new 21st century curriculum not a curriculum for the 70s or the 80s you said but a curriculum for the future indeed a curriculum for today as chair of the committee's public information subcommittee you called for the school committee to meet more regularly with individual school site councils and you advocated for a summit as you called it that year between
▶ 1:30:17 the school committee and the board of aldermen in the wake of animosity and backbiting between members of the two groups tumultuous times indeed and the times they were changing 1994 the year you started on this committee that was the year serratonis became shaw's johnny's food master opened that june and turner seafood dropped its anchor on main street that same summer the district launched its first its first technology committee ed reform was in its infancy the high school began exploring the idea of creating a student internship program appointed chair of the school committee's athletic subcommittee, you saw longtime football coach Bruce McPherson leave the district for the warmer climes of Old Cape Cod that year, making way for the
▶ 1:31:10 hiring of Tim Morris as head football coach, an ending and a beginning that led our community on the long road to success in Foxborough just last month. The winter of 1994 brought us Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. It also brought us significant snowfall, snowfall that was a significant issue, upending the public works budget and even forcing the rescheduling of school committee meeting. Many expressed great concern that year about having to extend the school year into the dog days of summer because of the number of snow days. And in what may now be seen as perhaps the height of irony, one of your then fellow school members, a Mr. Bob Snow, sent a scorching, it was a, I think the name was Snow, sent a scorching
▶ 1:32:01 letter to the free press, castigating, wait for it, MMTV for the critical commentary one of its shows had heaped on the then powers that be. Tumultuous times indeed. And looking back to the start of your political life, Mr. Mayor, one can't help but note how very far we've come as a city, and really how very easy you've made it for the rest of us, both inside and outside of government. When you sat for your first school committee meeting on January 11, 1994, the city's finances were a mess, to put it politely. Free cash, how about hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt? The start of your tenure saw the city grappling with bond rating agencies, begging and praying to be relieved of our junk bond status.
▶ 1:32:49 Tumultuous times indeed. Through it all, however, from the moment you were sworn in, you leaned into it all, urging and making the smart financial moves while always, always building. Building our schools, building our city, building our capacity, building our future. And the bond rating, it's gone from below the bottom of the scale to the top. You've set the table, Mr. Mayor, for us and for the future. And it's always been, always been, for the benefit of our students. You never took your eye off that ball. For 8,778 days and counting, you stepped up every single day. And to conclude, Madam Chair, on a personal note, let me say what an honor and a privilege it has been to serve with you on this committee
▶ 1:33:43 for the past two years. Twice a month, I and my colleagues have had the benefit of attending a live action seminar on local government and politics done right, courtesy of your wisdom, your guidance, and your work here. At the start of my career many moons ago, I had the incredible good fortune to work in local government elsewhere for someone who was then understood by all to be the very best municipal manager there had ever been. I can say now with full confidence that that mantle has been passed to a new municipal leader you've done us proud Mr. Mayor you've done your father proud you've done your family proud and you leave us in a very very good place and we're grateful for that thank you Mr. Chair
▶ 1:34:32 Jennifer McAndrew: thank you very much any other comments from our committee members Ms. McAndrew well um so our shared tenure on the school committee is sadly short but um i did and of course mr o'connell just gave a beautiful eloquent history of your impact over many years and in very tough times and i would just echo that level of support for my 11 years that i've lived Melrose you have supported our students and our schools and lifelong learning in our community for everyone even when that was politically difficult and when financially difficult also I don't have a long prepared beautiful statement like mr. O'Connell but I wanted to share one anecdote actually a very short one which is a couple of years ago I was talking with the mayor about something and he
▶ 1:35:43 Jennifer McAndrew: said you know I think I'm gonna move the mayor's math cup and I think folks know what that is it's the fourth and fifth grade math competition that happens every year I think I'm gonna move it to Memorial Hall and I think I'm gonna get t-shirts for all the kids because every kid deserves to be celebrated for what they do and that has always really stuck with me because I think if I could characterize your impact in this community at least from my perspective whether it's on the athletic field or the stage or in the classroom or even just coming to the mayor's office for a tour with their class that they won at a PTO auction and I really do wonder how many of those you do every year every kid who interacts with you knows that the leader of the community and the
▶ 1:36:36 entire community values that child for who they are and I think that's a tremendous legacy thank you thank you anyone else oh thank you for being a gentleman and a wonderful role model for all our kids and for us and for just being a sweetheart of a man we're gonna miss you a lot and I'm personally saddened because I've heard from superintendent a more how much fun it is to serve with you doing all these bad things for the kids so I feel sad that I'm gonna miss out on all the good stuff that you brought here and thank you so much for all that you've done for Melrose this is probably the hardest thing about leaving is this school committee you know I laugh and say it's torturous right but I asked for it but it's the most important job so just say
▶ 1:37:33 let's say a few things it's the hardest because I remember as a kid sitting on my deck when I was little and looking out and on the deck was people like like Michael DiBartolo and Jack Kennedy and Tom Graff and Joan Cassidy and all these old school committee members that they would sit on the deck and after graduation and have a barbecue and we were all we were all very close I grew up with this institution and I remember my dad's first campaign in which the issue was whether or not he was really from Melrose that he was from Everett I've been mayor for 16 years and they say I'm from Everett so you know I'm not I grew up in Melrose however growing up in my family the greatest times was when
▶ 1:38:18 my dad took us to school to help us set up for the teachers little did we know would be working all day but we thought it was fun and schools have always been an important part of my existence in my life and he served for ten years and I served immediately after him in fact just cutting his first name off the bumper sticker and the bumper sticker just said Dolan and so from here from there this is the committee in which I've learned the most I learned more on as a young man on that school committee that I ever learned in graduate school because this is is the most important board in the city so I've been very lucky and to work with such awesome people like one particular school community member named dr. Susie Grodin and if you remember her she kind of took
▶ 1:39:07 me under her wing when I was a kid on the school committee and was kind and good to me Barbara Quinlan particularly was kind and good to me as were Susan Lawson Khan who was kind and good to a kid who wanted to just do good but didn't have the experience that they had so I've also been blessed to work with on the bookends two great superintendents one was Dr. David Driscoll who was legitimately a hero in this community and a bigger-than-life figure who also was so helpful to me and then Cindy Taymor and both of them share two things incredible passion as she showed tonight right knowledge and the ability to take risks to be great right and I've appreciated that it's been a pleasure and a great time to work with with her so in closing I just like to say this no
▶ 1:40:03 one has ever moved out of a community because of a pothole they move or stay in a community based on the whether or not they feel that children are going to have as good or better opportunity than they had in their lives at the end of the day it doesn't matter how many restaurants we have how great the golf course is how clean the parks are that is going to dictate the future of the city and there has to be a new generation of Melrose Ian's although I'm not old I have a third grader I am old in the sense of this table represents a new group of people people that in some cases not just an age or how long they lived here but new to the experience of service and if this new generation of people don't rise up now and take control of this city then our future is
▶ 1:40:49 in question right and now is the time for individuals particularly who have lived in this community for a period of time whose children make up the hundred more children than entering this district or returning from private school to rise up and take responsibility for public education in this community in collaboration with an outstanding group of teachers who I admire and consider my friends and colleagues administrators support staff custodians like Lenny down harassment school I've known for 20 years to make us great because it's not going to be solved I've heard for 30 years in this great community that you know every budget season we need to find a way we need to sharpen our pencil the fact is if you have 400 more students you had a
▶ 1:41:40 few years ago and very little additional money to help support those students then there's a problem it's not going away so those individuals have to question the answer to these problems not just accept so we've taken this community or at least I have to a certain period of time with the collaboration of great school committee members and great members of the Board of Alderman the public but the question is what do we do from here and that it that question is up to the people who are sitting at home right now or might read this in the newspaper so I will always be helpful because I have a nine-year-old and a twelve-year-old right I'm all in I'm all in for the next fight but that fight has to happen because you cannot as a committee keep
▶ 1:42:34 going through this year after year right and the difference is from really good to really great that's the difference right and that's the only limit we've ever put on ourselves that's not a knock that's just reality and we're evolving and getting there and I hope to still be here and even if I'm 70 or 80 here in Melrose then then I'll still be in that fight because it's it's it's it's the foundation of our greatness right so it's been a pleasure it's been a pleasure to work with kids sort of pleasure to work with you and thank you for your service and the hardest job in all of government in the United States which is being on a school committee thank you this has all been too much thanks so quickly on a personal note ten years mr. mayor it's been a privilege
▶ 1:43:32 every day I learned something new every day from you and I'm grateful for that and so before we conclude our ceremony we celebrate your service we thank you and your family for their sacrifices and we wish you the continued success you deserve and will earn in the next part of your journey and at this point we would like to invite you to come into the horseshoe please and stand right here for you number one okay there's really no way that you can leave Now you've got to have the test. This is like your caucus in the tank. Absolutely. Front and back. That's a good idea. Now you can't exactly leave. Excuse me, so I'm tough enough. So you were in a band? I was. Well, tonight you're in the Honor Society.
▶ 1:45:06 Society we'd like to present you with a varsity letter for your service on the Melrose School Committee. That is the best. You cannot leave without, you've got your cap and gown. Not yet, in a moment. You've got your varsity letter. You cannot leave without a diploma from the Melrose School Committee. And with that, Mr. Maynard, you are entitled to throw your test. I threw it up. Thank you. No, no, no. They're going to take a picture. We'd like to do a photograph. With this on? Yes. Oh. Missed that opportunity. Why don't you ask a question if you'd like to actually come back? With the whole gang? Where would you like us? Okay. We will flank the mayor. Or not. If you wish. One more. Very good.
▶ 1:46:43 I'm pausing. It's fine. What? You want me to take a picture of you? Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. Good. Good. Good. All right. I'm going to go take a picture. Wait. Then you're next. You seem to be in it, too. Would you mind taking a picture of all of us with Cindy, too? Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. All right. Everybody ready? Yeah. Thank you. All right. Let me get another one. Let me get one. Oh. Oh, boy. One more. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I think we would like to invite Mayor Dolan. Would you be kind enough to provide a motion for adjournment? Sorry. Move to adjourn. Mayor Dolan has made a move, made a motion to adjourn. And it meets the committee's pleasure, I would like to provide a second motion.
▶ 1:48:04 Thank you. Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Opposed? Then we are adjourned.